


a conversation for tomorrow

by stonestars



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: season 3 episode 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 17:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21149720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: Rita lets a name she learned while looking into a certain master thief for Buddy slip. Peter jumps to conclusions and tries to pretend they don't exist. Juno decides it's high time for a conversation.(Season 3 Episode 1 spoilers!!)





	a conversation for tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> i had a lot of emotions about the new episode and the second citadel discord is full of wonderful wonderful enablers

Rita’s mad at him.

Peter can tell she’s  _ really  _ mad, as she’s currently advancing on him as he backs into the corner of the kitchen, speaking so fast he can barely keep up.

“He’s  _ trying,  _ Agent-Mistah-Glass-Ransom, and you keep throwing it back in his face! How are the two of you gonna be the baby of the family and his sleek mysterious friend-slash-secret crush-slash-lover--”

“I’m curious, Miss Rita,” Peter interrupts, hoping to get out of this while glazing over the  _ lover  _ part of that, “where does that put you in this imagined family hierarchy?”

“Well I’d be--” she frowns, fire not dying in her eyes. “Don’t try to distract me, Mistah-Agent-Ransom. I’ve had practice with Mistah Steel, you won’t throw me off my game.”

“I would never,” Peter says, holding up flat hands. “I was just trying to get a better grip on the workings of our crew.”

“Family!”   


Peter drops his hands. “This family, yes,” he corrects, reluctant. “Speaking of which, I should probably go converse with our Captain, she seemed insistent on getting to know everybody.”

“Oh  _ no _ you don’t, Mistah-Theif! I’m serious, and no one escapes Rita when she’s serious. Ask Mistah Steel, he’s fired me before and I’ve stuck with it.” 

Peter can believe it. He sighs. “Very well,” he says. He’ll listen, deal with it later. “Please, go ahead.”

Rita takes a deep breath, and then starts speaking rapidly. “You need to  _ talk  _ to Mistah Steel! He hasn’t said much because that’s not his style but I know him well enough to know you two need to talk. What it is that Captain A said? That we all have to work together effectively? I like you, Mistah-Agent, but if you and Mistah Steel keep dancing around each other it’s going to be you that Captain A tells to go, because if Mistah Steel leaves I leave and your only bond is him, and so what I’m  _ saying _ \--” 

Peter can’t keep up exactly, but he gets the gist. Peter’s… lack of communication during their prior heist has left Juno upset, and Rita’s not having it. Juno’s changed, apparently, and Peter’s not going to send him backwards.

Peter’s okay with that. He’s changed too. And he’s not going to let his-- 

He’s not going to let  _ one _ detective from Mars who says he’s changed undo that progress. 

“--I told Mistah Steel to talk to you, and he said he’d tried, and you didn’t want to. Well I’m telling you now, Mistah-Theif-Agent-Glass-Rose-Ransom- _ Nureyev _ -whoever you are--” 

Peter feels like every bit of air has been knocked out of his chest. He draws himself up, voice barely steady. “ _ What _ . did you just call me?” 

He knows Rita realized her mistake, because she clasps her hands over her mouth and stares at him with wide eyes. 

“Very well,” Peter says, all ice to hide his internal panic. “If you’ll excuse me, Miss Rita, I have some matters to attend to in my quarters before our next heist.”  _ Namely,  _ he thinks,  _ getting out of here before it even begins. _

He’d been foolish. Foolish to think he could leave that behind, even more foolish to think he could when Juno knew. Foolish to think that Juno would… would keep his secret. Juno had no reason to; after all, Peter  _ Nureyev _ was nothing to him. 

Nothing but a fool. 

But that was all for later, for when he was off this ship and able to permanently file Juno Steel under “past mistakes.”

By the time he gets to his quarters, he’s barely able to keep his hands from shaking. “For  _ future _ consideration,” he reminds himself quietly. And now is not the future. Now is--

Is quickly but  _ carefully  _ gathering his things, not leaving a trace of Peter Ransom ever living aboard this ship, not thinking about Juno and Juno telling Rita and--

Not. Thinking. About. Juno.

So instead, he starts building the man who will slip away from this ship and settle these debts some other way. 

* * *

The moment Rita peeks into his room looking like a kicked puppy, Juno knows something’s wrong. 

He just jumps to the wrong conclusion. “Rita? Who did what, did Ransom--”

“It wasn’t him, Mistah Steel,” she says. “It was… you should go talk to Mistah Ransom-slash-Nureyev right now. I think I messed up.”

“Why do I need to talk to Nur--” Juno freezes. “How do you know that name?”

“Well, you see, Captain A asked me to…” Rita starts.

“Wait, does  _ he _ know you know?” Juno interrupts, slowly processing. 

“I didn’t mean to, Mistah Steel, I promise, but I was mad at him because he’s been so rude to you and so I thought I’d convince him to  _ listen _ but then it just kind of slipped out and he looked… well he didn’t look  _ mad,  _ Mistah Steel, but…”

Juno sighs, rubbing his face. “No, Rita, it’s okay. I’ll talk to him.”

“Okay,” Rita says, stepping aside so he can join her in the hallway. “He has so many names, you know, and I’ve read a lot about all of them and I didn’t think to stop before I got to that one and--”

Juno has to admit that he’s curious, that he wants to ask Rita about Nureyev’s various aliases, but… well, that can all wait. Right now, he needs to go confront this, to stop letting it be a conversation that can happen  _ tomorrow.  _ He and Peter Nureyev need to have a talk, and they need to have it now.

* * *

Peter’s so caught up in the details he’s mapping out in his own head-- if he takes a longer path through the ship’s thin hallways he can avoid the areas where the rest of the crew frequent-- that he doesn’t hear the door open. Not until someone catches his wrist as he reaches for one of his blazers. 

He wrenches his wrist away, focusing in on the familiar scars across the hand that grabbed his. “What do you need,  _ Detective _ ?” There’s more hurt in his voice than he intends. He shoves the tremor down and replaces it with ice. “Because I’m in the middle of--”

“Nureyev.” Juno  _ breathes  _ the name, soft and full of apology and concern.

Anger burns up the back of his neck, quickly dying into…  _ something  _ else. He lets the silence stretch on longer than he needs to, not letting Juno’s furrowed eyebrows and soft look get to him. It’d be his undoing if he let Juno get ahold of him again, and he’s made it this far.

“I’m sorry, Detective, but that name holds little meaning anymore.”

“Yeah? Well I knew a guy once who told me it was a gift.”

He scoffs, stepping away from Juno and turning to face him for the first time. “A gift is only worth however much value the receiver puts on it. I seem to remember someone who it meant nothing to.” 

He’ll let the hurt in Juno’s eyes hurt him later. For now, he reaches for the blazer again, tucking it neatly away. 

“C’mon, Nureyev, that’s--”

“It’s what?  _ Unfair? _ ” A bag of jewelry-- shiny, deceiving, but worthless-- goes on top of the blazer.

Juno sighs. “It was a gift I didn’t understand, Nureyev, not back then. I wasn’t in a place where I could.”

_ And you are now? _ he wants to ask. He doesn’t. “If you understand it now, Juno, why was your secretary able to list off every alias I’ve ever given you? It seems as though you’ve made it clear just how much my gifts mean to you.”

“Rita… looked into you. I didn’t know!” Juno adds, quickly, when he sees Peter’s face. “I didn’t tell her, Nureyev, I promise.” 

Peter has nothing to say to that. He lays another blazer over the jewelry bag. 

“Hell, you can be angry at me.  _ I _ would be. But we need to talk about this. You keep telling me it’s a bad time, well I’m sick of waiting for a good one. We’re talking about this  _ now.” _

“ _ Detective _ ,” Peter says, voice low and forced steady. “I’m in the middle of preparing for our next heist. Perhaps tomorrow--” 

“No.” 

Peter hadn’t expected Juno to interrupt, but he does, taking a step towards him. 

“No, Nureyev, because you’re not packing for our heist. You’re packing to disappear. You can’t put whatever  _ this  _ is off forever,” Juno says, gesturing between him and Peter. 

“Not forever, Juno, just until tomorrow.”

“Nureyev.” 

“Oh, don’t give me that  _ look _ , Juno. I am, historically, not the flight risk when it comes to the two of us.”

He’s going for hurt, this time, but if his words do cut Juno the detective doesn’t show it. “I know,” Juno says. 

The same anger comes back, tugging at his chest and making it hard to breathe. “Then why are we having this conversation? If you are no longer going to leave in the middle of the night, and I am all in for this series of jobs, we should be able to work together just fine. I don’t need a--” whatever he was going to say catches in his throat. “A conversation partner. I need a partner for  _ heists _ . A  _ working  _ relationship is all I want, Juno. I’d think you would understand that perfectly.”

“I  _ do  _ understand, Nureyev.”

“Then why--”

“What I  _ understand,”  _ Juno cuts him off, “is where you’re at right now. Because I’ve been there. You’re not doing yourself any favors by avoiding everything except your work.” 

“That is  _ not _ what I’m doing,” Peter shoots back. 

Juno raises an eyebrow. “Really,” he deadpans. He sighs, his expression softening. “I’ve been where you are, Nureyev, and it lead to me making one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

“Oh, please, don’t give me your pity. I certainly don’t need  _ that  _ on top of everything else.”

“I don’t  _ pity  _ you,” Juno says. “And my mistake wasn’t staying on Mars. No, I think I needed to stay back then.”

Peter wants to turn and walk away. Instead, he crosses his arms. “Then what was it?”

“Not talking to you before I did.” 

A memory-- waking up content, reaching for warmth, never finding any-- that he has replayed in his head far to many times before he was able to file it away worms its way to the surface of his mind. This time, he can’t manage to get it out of his head. He doesn’t feel like Peter Ransom, accomplished thief on an elite team, staring down his fellow crew member. He feels like Peter Nureyev, waking up alone and suddenly understanding that he wasn’t enough.

When Peter stays frozen, Juno continues. “I wasn’t ready to leave, and I wasn’t… I  _ couldn’t _ let myself go with you, Nureyev. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. That doesn’t mean you didn’t make me happy, or that your name meant nothing to me. Like I said, we need to talk about this. Because I  _ didn’t  _ back then.” 

Peter wants to push this all away. He’s packed, now, he can run. He can still follow through with his plan, leave this for the future until it’s entirely in the past. He can do this-- 

But is it  _ really  _ what he wants? 

He’s staring at Juno, and Juno’s staring back at him. Peter’s shown Juno the man behind the mask before. He’d been willing to from the day he slipped a note between Juno’s couch cushions. But… perhaps that had been the issue. Because the first time Peter feels  _ seen  _ by Juno isn’t any of the times he’d let Juno see behind the mask.

It’s when Juno is the one who forces him to take the mask off. 

“Okay,” Peter says, arms falling to his sides. “Let’s talk.” 

“Now?” Juno asks, hopeful. “Not tomorrow?”

“Now,” Peter confirms. 


End file.
